Rainwater left untreated in cooling towers atop city-owned Harlem Hospital fueled the Big Apple’s deadliest Legionnaire’s disease outbreak in a decade, the Rev. Al Sharpton charged Tuesday.

Two construction workers who claim they contracted Legionnaires' disease while working at or near Harlem Hospital Center are suing contractors they allege failed to safeguard water cooling towers at the building against contamination by the bacteria that causes the illness.

The Legionnaires' disease outbreak in Central Harlem has been traced to 12 cooling towers, including several at city-run buildings, officials said.

One particularly nasty bacteria-borne illness is currently spreading in New York City using those enormous cooling units as its vector: Legionnaire’s disease. The bacterial pneumonia, which usually recurs each summer in the US’s largest city, has sickened more than 100 people and killed five in a growing outbreak.

Eight 375ft-tall cooling towers crashed to the ground yesterday in the largest simultaneous demolition of its kind. Hundreds of people watched the structures’ tumble at Cottam Power Station in

Spanning Cottam and two other former power stations, plans could deliver 6,800 homes, 15,500 jobs, and £930m in economic growth